further showers, longer spells of rain across northern scotland and winteriness over the high ground. some rain in the south could be quite heavy but with the breeze, nowhere will be particularly cold. a bit chillier tonight than the previous night. low pressure into thursday, lots of isobars, it will be windy for england and wales, some sunshine around but also showers to the morning and the cloud builds up across southern england in towards the south—east late in the day, more persistent rain pushing on. wind gusts in excess of a0 mph in exposure across england, wales and northern ireland, very mild to pretty much wherever you are, low to mid—teens. feeling particularly springlike in any sunshine. friday to start sunny, showers get going, becoming widespread, heavy, some thundery with hail, but again it will be blustery and mild, temperatures into the low teens for

most. it is changing into the weekend, we will see a cold spell move south which could bring wintry showers across the northern half of the country. it will turn milder again into next week. thanks, stav. and that's bbc news at ten on wednesday 22nd march. there's more analysis of the day's main stories on newsnight with victoria derbyshire, which is just getting under way on bbc two. the news continues here on bbc one. it's time to join our colleagues across the nations and regions for the news where you are, but from the ten team it's goodnight. hello, i'm hugh ferris. the two parties who have declared their interest in buying manchester united have submitted new bids ahead of this evening's deadline. ineos owner sirjim ratcliffe and qatari banker sheikh jassim have both put forward improved offers... as the takeover of one

of english football's biggest clubs steps up a gear. joe lynskey has the story so far. last november, manchester united went on the market put up for sale by their owners, the glazers, who said they'll look for new investment, a sale or other transactions. the cost to buy it all, perhaps £5 billion. so those who can afford it come from a small pool just two have gone public. the bid from close to home comes from jim ratcliffe, the owner of petrochemical giant ineos, who says he's a lifelong united fan but he won't overpay. this week, ratcliffe told the new york times, what you don't want to do is pay stupid prices for things because then you regret it. he goes up against a bid from qatar led by sheikh jassim. they say they have funds to both buy the club and clear its debts, but concerns remain about human rights there.

and some fans will take a stand. in this sale, though the bid isjust the start. a new owner will need funds to build a squad and perhaps a stadium. the roof leaking again. old trafford is more than a century old and not seem major work since 2006. more costs to go with a world record price tag. no sports club has been sold for more than £a billion. manchester united, champions. the winning bid will have their name go with the brand and could stay united back to the top. both ineos and the qatari say they're not sports washing, but each presents an ethical dilemma. at old trafford, they want this sale to bring the good times back for manchester united. these are high sums and high stakes. joe lynskey, bbc news. chelsea have taken a step towards the semi finals of the women's champions league — with an impressive victory over the holders lyon in france. they won the first leg of their quarter final i—0 with guro reiten

scoring the only goal. both sides hit the post, but it's chelsea with the advantage heading back to stamford bridge next week. after two goals for his club at the weekend, brighton teenager evan ferguson has now scored his first international goal for the republic of ireland helping them to a 3—2 friendly win over latvia. it was the 18 year old's first start for his country and he made it 2—0 in dublin. that was afterjust 11 minutes, but the visitors had cancelled out the advantage by half time. roberts uldrikis smashed in a 30—yard piledriver for latvia's first. ireland's winner came from substitute chiedozie 0gbene half way through the second half. their opening euro qualifier is on monday when they host france. both emma raducanu and andy murray have been knocked out in the first round of the miami 0pen. murray was beaten by dusan lajovic. while in a match between two former us open champions. raducanu lost to canada's bianca andreescu in three sets, as adam cottier reports.

18 months on from her stunning us open triumph, girl mike marked a return to full by reaching the fourth round last week. there were glimpses of her talent here, as well as she recovered from losing the first set against bianca andreescu to win the second. with initial resolution that you will need more of if she is to climb back up the world rankings. both were both born in the same part of canada and have a remaining heritage, they also find it hard to make progress since winning the us open as teenagers. injuries have not helped. crucially here, mike was unable to break bianca andreescu's serve in the opening game of the deciding set. bianca andreescu who beat serena williams to in 2019 went on to seize the initiative breaking emma raducanu who was unable to sustain any consistency lasting two and a

half hours. much more on our website. and that's all the sport for now. this is bbc news. we'll have all of the headlines and main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. guide dogs — for thousands of blind and visually—impaired people, they're the difference between independence and isolation. she's my best friend, my constant companion, my means of independence. i couldn't imagine my life without rio. since 1931, around 36,000 guide dogs have been matched with visually impaired people.

but during the pandemic, the breeding programme shut down overnight. the charity lost a third of its puppy—raising volunteers, and the guide dog service was paused... people like us are needed, so much, to help people like you. ..leaving more than 1,000 people waiting to be matched. it is really, really difficult not having the dog. practically every step you're thinking, "this is impossible. "i don't know how i'm doing with this." but with around 1,100 puppies now in early training, is recovery around the corner? we are hopeful for the future, but we do need a little bit of patience for a little bit longer, as these dogs make their way through the system. we visit puppies at the national breeding centre and ask what needs to be done to fix britain's guide dog shortage.

archie! good boy. let's go! meet new arrival archie... good boy! are you my little star? ..and his puppy raiser, lisa. hers is one of more than 2,000 households giving their time for free to help raise guide dog puppies for around a year. it's opened up a whole new world. i've met lots of new friends, i'm part of... i feel part of a community that i wasn't before. not only that, obviously you're doing something very good, at the end of the day. it sounds exciting, but it's a big commitment. puppies like archie live at home and often need attention around the clock. as much as it's your instant reaction, "puppy, puppy, puppy," you know, "let's go for it, a cute little puppy," you've got to remember that it's a lot of work. being a puppy raiser is hard work, especially at the beginning. volunteers take their puppies with them to everyday places, from restaurants to supermarkets

and on buses and trains, to help get them ready for their future working lives. at the end of the day, ijust remember i'm doing this to enable somebody who's not as fortunate as me, that can't see, to actually get some independence. archie, touch! volunteers like lisa are supported by the charity guide dogs, which works across the uk. lovely. just keep doing exactly what you're doing, rewarding on the left there so he always knows where to come. that's absolutely fantastic. good boy. today, puppy development adviser beth has come to see how lisa and archie are getting on. so the reason that we use hand touch is so when archie is placed with a visually impaired person, obviously they can't see when he's running back, when he's coming, so they can pop out this hand as a target. these routine visits are as much about supporting lisa as they are for training archie — but these are the building blocks he'll need if he's to earn a working harness. good boy! perfect. good boy!

learning through play is encouraged... ..but there are some things archie will need to quit before he finishes his training. you're going to have to learn what this is for. but he's just got such a wonderful nature. he's a heart of gold, and hejust loves people. really loves people. happy times, but every puppy raising volunteer knows that if all goes to plan, the day will come when they have to give them back to guide dogs. later, we'll follow lisa and herfirst pup, fergall, as she hands him in for the next phase of his training. what are the emotions that are going through your head today? if i'm honest, i'd say proud. i think that's my biggest one. so proud of what i've done. really proud of him. lisa hopes that both of her dogs will go on to give someone their independence. just proud.

forward, rio. forward, go on, then. i couldn't imagine my life without rio. she's so important. she's my best friend, my constant companion, my means of independence, of getting about wherever i want to go, whenever i want to go, and living the life i want to lead. go forward — good girl. ella caulfield is a first—time guide dog user. she was matched with rio in 2018. good girl, well done. she's very open aboutjust how much she benefits from having a guide dog in her life. she gives me that independence that i do kind of need, and i crave, that i need to live the life i want to lead. she's good for a cuddle at the end of an evening if i've had a bad day, and she's an excellent guide. she's very rarely led me astray. it's not a one—way street, though. ella looks after rio�*s needs and wants. today, she's grooming and cleaning her coat. it's one of the responsibilities

ella has as a guide dog user to make sure that rio is loved, happy and well cared for. if they didn't have each other, ella says she'd never have been able to study maths at oxford university. ella started to lose her sight at four years old. when she was 15, she received some devastating news. i think because it happened gradually, it wasn't, like, an immediate shock of "you're not going to see again". i was told i had a retinal detachment, and i definitely broke down then. i was with my dad. i can remember him hugging me and the nurses kind of bringing me a cup of water, just kind of comforting me. and then i got booked in for surgery the next day. doctors operated to see if they could save any sight they could, but those attempts failed. nothing came of it. so i've been left withjust minimal light perception in my right eye. but it's not useful. i can only see light if i, like, look directly into the sun or into a light bulb. for ella, a new reality.

she learnt new life skills and how to read braille. she applied for a guide dog in may 2017, and then around a year later an exciting call came. it was actually my mum picked up the call, so... i hadn't got home from school yet. my mum picked up the call. it was someone from guide dogs saying, "we've got a match for ella." i think ijust got very giggly and very kind of... yeah, very excited. like, "yes, this is happening." ella and rio spent around five weeks training with guide dog mobility specialists. can you tell me what it felt like the first time you were guided by rio? i felt lighter. i felt like i was definitely kind of more smiley, more confident. icould... i could move freely and independently without relying on somebody else being there. like many guide dog users, ella would never want to be without a four—legged friend again. just feeling so much more confident and independent and happy that, like, i had this friend with me who was going to be there

permanently with me. rio provides such a kind of welfare support to me. ella and rio are one of 3,695 partnerships currently working in the uk. that's down from around 5,000 before the pandemic. more than one in five people who had a guide dog before then now do not. i honestly think they are doing their absolute best. like me, kelly nasir is waiting to be matched with a new guide dog. we are among more than 1,100 people on the ready—to—train list. kelly's last dog, river, retired eight months ago. her mobility has been seriously impacted. walking with a cane is like walking with one hand tied behind your back. it makes everything harder. not having the dog, that's what makes you feel disabled. because when you have the dog, you just... you get on with things.

kelly keeps a busy social and work diary. she's a barrister, but also a mum. not having a dog doesn't only affect her, but her very young daughter. i'm the one who can't take her out when i want to, i have to say, "well, let's wait for daddy," or, "let's wait till we go see nanna and grandad." and i can do everything else she needs and i'm her mummy, and i love her and i'm the one that's there when she has her nightmares, and i play with her and it doesn't impact on our relationship, but i think it impacts on how i feel about thejob i'm doing as a mum. watch the tree. so why do guide dog users like me and kelly find ourselves between dogs? puppy: puppy! the answer lies here at the charity's national breeding centre in warwickshire. bill's been explaining to me that the waiting lists are currently a bit longer than guide dogs would like them to be for life—changing guide dogs. purely for research purposes, you understand, i might have to stroke puppies like bill and many, many other puppies.

is this the bestjob in the world or what? this is where a guide dog puppy'sjourney begins_ before the pandemic, as many as 1,500 dogs were bred here in a year. in 2020, the breeding programme shut down overnight when social distancing was introduced. it was the first time in the charity's 92—year history that the guide dog service was suspended. archive: guide dogs show their paces along one - of the centre's obstacle courses. although training techniques have changed over the years, the aim to match visually impaired people with guide dogs has not. and thousands of blind people who have benefited from it- will agree with her. nowadays, the charity trains more assistance dogs than anyone else around the globe. puppy! little ones like paige spend

the first weeks of their life here. for them, they're just having fun... she's currently nibbling the camera at the moment. ..but staff are watching closely to see how suited they are to guide work. she's got the brains, for sure. she air kisses puppy — paige! hi, pup! are you a good puppy? yes, you are! look how cute you are! look at those big eyes and floppy ears. you're such a good puppy! sniff it - 0k! becky and anna are paying close attention to see how paige reacts to human interaction. right... they laugh they're looking to see how she deals with problem solving. yes, she's... she knows. that's a good sign — because a guide dog's ability to find their way around a problem is, well, just part of the job. good girl. that's also interesting that she's... she's been to that one, smelled that one.

she's like, "mm, it's not there." and she's actually worked out to go to the other one. so, in itself, that's interesting. during the pandemic, all training and breeding here stopped. guide dogs say they needed to protect their staff and volunteers. so that is our puppy reception. it is really unfortunate. 0ur breeding programme is fantastic, it's world—class and it's always been able to produce the number of puppies that we've required to meet our service users�* needs. and unfortunately, that pause in our breeding programme has really affected us. and there's been other combinations as well. bearing in mind that obviously our puppies, when they were out with our amazing puppy—raising volunteers, weren't able to experience the environments that they would experience with a guide dog owner as yourself. so unfortunately, it's been a combination of things that have meant that we haven't produced the number of guide dog partnerships that we really want to. breeding numbers are getting back to normal. in the past year, around 1,000 puppies have passed through here. we are in recovery mode and we are hopeful for the future, but we do need a little bit of patience for a little bit longer as these dogs

make their way through the system. as you said, these little puppies here that we saw today, it will take about two years for them to make partnership. around 1,100 puppies are currently in early training. guide dogs says what it needs now is volunteer fosterers who can look after dogs in advanced training, dropping them off and picking them up from the charity's offices on weekdays. 0ur volunteers are our lifeblood. guide dogs could not do what we do without our volunteers, across the board, across all of our services. and unfortunately, after the pandemic, we did lose a lot of volunteers as people wanted to have a break, being the situation, we also kind of reduced the numbers that were reapplying. so we are at the moment looking very heavily to recruit lots of volunteers, and we've been very lucky that a lot of people have been so generous with their time. come on then, sam, let's go. head — good boy! reporter: after more than eight years of working with sean, - guide dog sammy is set to retire, and sean may have to wait two years for his next dog.

that was six months ago. when sammy leaves me, it will leave a huge hole in my heart. a few hours later, sammy left me to retire with family. much of my confidence and mobility left me too that day. sammy is more important to me, and you always will be, sammy. i know you'll always be my boy. a month later and it's clear i was still in trauma. you are actually quite moved today, aren't you? you know, we... sharing my story is by far the hardest thing i've ever done in my career. the impact, though, has been huge. i would like to say to bbc breakfast viewers, thank you so much to everyone who's already applied to volunteer at guide dogs. since coverage, we've seen a peak in applications. so injanuary alone, we received almost 3,000 volunteer applications. 2,500 of those were to raise poppies — compared with 2,000 for the whole of 2019,

the last pre—pandemic year. for lisa's first pup, fergall, it's the end of one journey, but the start of another. all this, i'm packing the three trays up from home. his biscuits that i always give him, half a biscuit at bedtimes. they've been together forjust over a year. this, i've had it made and had his name put on it, and his id number. she's packing up things that she hopes will remind him of their time together. and his christmas present. i can't tell you what it is — he'll hear! sean laughs the day has come for fergall to start his advanced training. that means lisa must say a painful goodbye. hello! hi! i want him upset as little as possible. they're his toys, he's got his biscuits that he has half a one at night.

i mean, if she's generous, she might like to give him one at first, because he deserves it. any time he's not with shelly, working and learning, learning what he's got to do, he'll be in there having a good rest. and then we've got some fab free—running sandpits out the back as well, so we'll show you them, where he can have his downtime and have some good sniffs. yeah. nice doggy hotel and playground, fergall. this may be a sad time for lisa — but for fergall, a new adventure awaits. here you go, you get big boy lead now. bye—bye, sweetheart. many guide dog users stay in touch with their puppy raisers, but many do not. tearfully: thanks for that. you're welcome. i'll ring you tomorrow. lisa knows this could be the last time she sees fergall. crying: i am fine. woman: you've set me off, anyway. the one question that i get asked all the time or people say to me, all my friends, family, people i meet in the street,

"i'd love to do what you're doing, "but i couldn't do it, because i couldn't "give the dog back." he's ultra cute. he's a good boy. if i can do it, anybody can do it. as a guide dog user of more than 23 years, i know the theory of what volunteers like lisa go through — but being there for the moment of handover was as beautiful as it was poignant. it's hard, but you've got to remember why you're doing it. you know, people have to help people. there's not enough of it in this world. we're needed, people like us are needed so much to help people like you. the tears are worth it.

hello there. let's take a look at the weather for the week ahead. now, it's been very blustery of late with showers, longer spells of rain. and there won't really be any big changes either in the forecasts over the next few days or so. so, more showers, some sunny spells in between the showers. brisk south—westerly winds and it stays mild until we get to the weekend. now, on thursday, still low pressure dominates. various systems waiting out in the atlantic. they'll be pushing their way eastwards throughout the day, some bands of showers. some of the showers heavy and thundery. it's a wet start for north—west england, but there is also a lot of sunshine around through the morning across much of the rest of the uk. the showers will get going through the late morning into the afternoon. moving through in bands, merging together to form longer spells of rain at times. and some more rainjust moving into southern england by the time we get to the end of the day. a brisk, blustery south—westerly wind, particularly towards western—facing coasts. and temperature still on the mild side for this time of year

between 12 and 15 celsius. now as we head through into friday, well, it is just more of the same. in fact, it is looking like the windiest day of the week across england and wales. the wind slightly lighter across much of scotland. there will be some more showers. again, there could be some thunder, some lightning and some hail falling from these, but, of course, they'll move through very swiftly on that brisk south—westerly. temperatures peaking between 12 and 1a celsius, so again, the air is very mild. but that is all set to change as we head into the weekend. now, this area of low pressure pulls away from scotland. there will be some showers around as we head through saturday. we start to draw in that northerly wind into much of scotland and the snow levels will start to drop. so i think some snow even to low levels by the time we get to the end of the day on this northerly wind. further south across much of england and wales, it is a drier picture with lighter winds. temperatures still on the mild side, 12 to 1a celsius. but then we will start to see this area of low pressure just move through into southern england, i think, by the time we get to saturday night into sunday morning. so, here could be quite

a wet start to the day. the low will eventually move away, allowing high pressure to build in. but a wet start to the day on sunday for southern areas of england. that rain eventually pulls away, wintry showers feeding down on this northerly wind as we head throughout the day, even possibly to some lower levels. still a lot of uncertainty. temperatures between 9—11 celsius, but with plenty of added wind chill from this brisk and really rather chilly northerly wind. as low pressure pulls away on sunday, we can start to see this high pressure building in as we head through monday. and this will help to kill off a lot of the showers across the mainland uk, but still some showers just moving through into northern areas of scotland, falling as snow. a bit of a wintry mix, perhaps, to lower levels at times. and some more showers just moving towards north sea—facing coasts as well, but elsewhere, it is largely dry. and i think there will be some sunshine. temperatures, 9—12 celsius, but again, it is going to feel colder than that with plenty of added wind chill to factor in. now throughout the course of next week, of course, our area of high pressure

is moving its way eastwards and this will allow low pressure again to dominate. various systems out in the atlantic expected to push their way eastwards. so, of course, as the rain hits the colder air, then it could possibly turn to snow for a while. so, we could see some transitional snow, perhaps. it will gradually turn wetter, windier as the week wears on with the mild air eventually winning out. but it is a chilly start with some widespread frost, especially on sunday and monday. some wintry showers at times before we see that milder air again.

welcome to newsday, reporting live from singapore. i'm monica miller. the headlines: former uk prime minister borisjohnson denies lying to parliament during a hearing into the so—called partygate scandal. i apologise for inadvertently misleading this house, but to say that i did it recklessly or deliberately is completely untrue, as the evidence shows. the us federal reserve raises interest rates, despite fears that it could add to financial turmoil after two bank failures. japan's prime minister fumio kishida wraps up his visit to eastern europe with a surprise visit to kyiv and a meeting with his counterpart in warsaw.

and the search is on for the family of one of the uk's last